I was in couples therapy, and my therapist – who is also an instructor and supervisor, and who I had been seeing for five years – became emotionally abusive. The first incident happened when I was only five weeks postpartum. The second happened when I was eight.
He accused me of lying about the harm I had experienced, told me I needed to “lose my power”; that I was too controlling, that I was being too kind to myself, and that I needed to be a “passenger princess” – to think less and do more.
I even had documented proof: a feedback email in which he apologized for causing me harm. But when I filed a complaint with the regulatory body, he hired a lawyer and defended himself successfully. All he received was written advice asking him to be more mindful, and my complaint was dismissed for “insufficient proof.”
He also has a blog post on his website quoting a line from The Wire, where two men mockingly talk about marriage counseling: “I’m doing one of them marriage counsellors, charge a fool $100 to tell him to bring home some flowers, charge another $100 to tell the ell the b**** she ought to suck a c***”
-Jenny, Toronto